The step draws flak on two counts. The first is that in issuing the directive, the US is acting like the worst kind of colonial power. The US may be administering Iraq but it does not own it. It has neither the legal nor the moral authority to make such a decision with respect to Iraq's reconstruction, a responsibility that legitimately belonged to the UN. It betrays the Bush administration's imperial mindset. Furthermore, this policy can only serve to confirm the skepticism of those who believe that the US invaded Iraq for financial and geo-political advantage.

The second count is that the Bush administration has once again demonstrated the petty vindictiveness and arrogance that has been the hallmark of its foreign policy. The US, frankly, needs all the assistance it can get in Iraq. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who issued the directive, suggested that it would encourage other countries to join the coalition in Iraq. On the contrary, however, it is likely to further alienate the US from its erstwhile allies and make the reconstruction process even more difficult.

The US alienated the world by bullying and blustering its way to war in Iraq over the objections of the world community. Now it proposes to compound this blunder by punishing those countries that attempted to stand up to its bullying. With this latest directive, the Bush administration further demonstrates its disregard for world opinion and its evident belief that the rest of the world better do as the US says, or else. If the Bush administration carries on like this, soon the US will have hardly any friends left.